A Postcard from the Moss: April 2025

Skunk & Foster Lakes State Natural Area

I love sending postcards when I travel, so once a month I share photos with a postcard-length blurb about a place I’ve recently visited.

Looking out over Grenlie Lake

Sometimes you don’t need a long trail to enjoy a satisfying hike, just a trail with no one else around. Luckily, that was easy to find on a Thursday morning in central Wisconsin where spring hadn’t quite sprung yet. When I left Chicago, there were crocuses dotting the fence lines of my neighbors’ yards and buds on the branches of the trees outside my living room window. Up at Skunk & Foster Lakes State Natural Area, however, the landscape still clung onto the moody grey tones of late winter.

Busy beavers in the neighborhood!

Although I was the only human out hiking, there were signs of beaver everywhere I looked—multiple dams and a half dozen trees that were in various stages of being felled. I admit that I paused and listened for creaking wood before passing by each gnawed trunk. Like my well-documented fear of being trampled by hoofed animals¹, I worry about being squished under a log that a beaver has marked for removal.

This fear is more rational than a moose tripping over my guy lines. I’ve watched a sawyer hammer a wedge into their cut and then step back to let the tree fall—seemingly on its own—after a long pause.² Though beavers don’t use chainsaws and wedges, they also don’t set up safety perimeters to let you know which trees they have primed to fall in the next gentle breeze.

Still ice on the water as of April 10th

Though the beavers themselves stayed out of sight, the birds were unbothered by my presence. A particularly loud woodpecker—with my limited identification skills³ I am tentatively saying it was a Hairy Woodpecker—offered percussive entertainment as I paused for a water break. Then not to be outdone, a Blue Jay swooped across the trail so I could admire its plumage, bright against a backdrop of brown, before joining the chattering voices in the trees.

I underestimated the temperature and had to throw on a puffy jacket to keep the chill at bay—wish I’d remembered my gloves!

I imagine that this trail will erupt with life in the next month with greenery in the understory, birds and boaters finding their way back to the lakes for the warmer months, and an increase in beaver-led infrastructure projects. But my visit was a quiet one. Hiking at a slower-than-typical pace, I took the time to notice peeling bark on fallen trees, the stubborn ice sheet on the shady side of a lake, and other details that will be obscured (or gone) when the leaves come in. The views weren’t showy, but they were the breath of nature that I needed.⁴

I can’t resist a log covered in mushrooms!

How to visit:

Skunk & Foster Lakes State Natural Area is about a 30 minute drive from Stevens Point in central Wisconsin and hosts a segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. There is a parking lot, but no bathroom facilities, potable water, nor camping.

1. You can read more about that fear in these two posts:

Backcountry Fears

Under the Blood Moon

2. Sometimes a tree hangs on for awhile, even after you hear it start to crack (February 2024):

3. This is one the things I’m (theoretically) working on this year, however, I haven’t quite gotten to that part of my adventure challenge yet:

Twelve New Things

4. For those who missed last week’s post about how a dearth of nature had been affecting my mood:

Reaching for Sunlight